1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an electrical connector having an improved grounding structure for a shielding shell thereof.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
In the electronics industry, an electrical connector is usually mounted on a printed circuit board (PCB) for electrically connecting an external device to a PCB. The electrical connector, regardless of whether it is a plug or a receptacle connector, has a dielectric housing receiving a plurality of contacts therein. The electrical connector often has a shielding shell, which must be grounded to properly shield the contacts therein and to dissipate electrostatic charges accumulated on the shielding shell to ground.
Referring to FIG. 1, U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,244 discloses a conventional electrical connector comprising a shell 1', a housing 2', a board lock member 3' and terminals 4'. The housing 2' has a base 21' and a mating portion 20' at the front of the base 21'. A plurality of terminal receiving passages 22' are defined through the mating portion 20' and base 21' for receiving the electrical terminals 4'. The shell 1' is assembled to the housing 2' in a direction indicated by an arrow A and a shroud 10' of the shell 1' surrounds the mating portion 20'. At the same time, a pair of ground straps 11' projecting rearwardly from a bottom edge of the shell 1' engages a bottom of the base 21'. A board lock member 3' is mounted to a lateral flange of the housing 2' in a direction indicated by an arrow B to a position at which a locking tab 31' fits into a corresponding recess 23' in the flange. The ground strap 11' is then engaged with board lock member 3', whereby electrostatic charges accumulated on the shell 1' can be transmitted to ground on a printed circuit board to which locking legs 30' of the board lock members 3' are connected.
However, for this conventional connector, the shell 1' and the ground strap 11' are integrally stamped, which results in a lot of wasted material during the manufacturing process. In addition, when the connector requires a high profile, two towers are formed on lateral sides of the housing to increase the height of the connector. For such high profile connectors, the ground straps must downwardly extend a long distance relative to the shroud, which further increases the amount of wasted material during manufacturing of the shell. Furthermore, when the ground straps extend a relatively long distance from the shroud, they become very flexible and thus become difficult to correctly assemble to the housing.
Hence, an improved electrical connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.